After trying this both ways in the past few months, I can
wholeheartedly agree that having auto-balancing turned off
is the best way to go.

I definitely do not get a warm and fuzzy feeling with it
on, nor could I see how to intercede when auto-balancing
mysteriously did not or could not balance, (consequently,
unless you pay close attention, you can continue on for
months with an unbalanced account).


Message to Microsoft: It would be great if you could get
this to work, it would be even better if you could get
Money to tell you the details why it couldn't auto-
balance, and it would be the 'creme de la creme' of all
features good and useful if you could combine the two
preceding requests and make them work together.


- quote -

Retired Coal Miner <...[at]...> wrote:

- quote -

From someone who is definitely a "Regular" ("knowledgable" is a judgement
call :-)

1. No, absolutely not. Tried it for a while, and it seemed to work OK,
but I just don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from it :-) So I switched
back to using paper statements to balance against when I get them.

Equally important - because this is where I ran into trouble with
auto-balancing turned on - is to not allow "automatically accept
downloaded transactions". It's just too easy for Money to mismatch the
transactions.

I like downloading the transactions, so that I can tell which things have
cleared my bank (if auto-balancing is turned off, Money will mark the
transactions that are downloaded and accepted with a "E". This also makes
balancing to the paper statement a matter of a minute or 2, because they
"E" transactions get auto-checked when you balance. Most of the time, I'm
balanced to $0 difference as soon as I start the balancing process.

Cheers,
Steve

I had to look up that term, just to be sure, (Luddite: someone who can’t or
doesn’t want to use modern technology). So, I'll take this to mean you
don't enable auto balancing.

But, if you did enable auto balancing, and your statement didn't balance,
how would you balance it?

I'm going to be bugged and tormented until I find a definitive answer to
this: either M03's designers intended you to go months without your
account(s) balancing (jeez, ... no wonder people turn to Luddism), or
there's a more user friendly way to do this that I haven't figured out yet -
- (than un-reconciling transactions). If it's the latter, could it be more
user unfriendly?



On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 06:18:13 +0100, Bob Peel, MVP
<Bob_Peel[at]kiandra.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

- quote -

I am a Luddite - like you. I keep a rigorous track of all "ins" and "outs"
in Money; I check my Bank's version of events on their web-site every day
and once a month spend a minute or so reconciling vs the paper statement.

No hassles about how the bank spelt a payee this month and as I say only
takes a minute or two.

--
Regards
Bob Peel,
Microsoft MVP - Money

Hints/Tips
http://support.microsoft.com/default...d=fh;EN-GB;mny
UK Wishes/Suggestions
mnyukwsh[at]microsoft.com

"Retired Coal Miner" <...[at]...> wrote in message
newspruhr34buzwep9u[at]news.pa.comcast.giganews.com...
- quote -

After doing some research, and reading up the issues on banking technology
websites, such as bankersonline.com, I am not keen on trusting
electronically delivered info from a bank vs. paper statements. It all
boils down to this: banking regulations dictate that paper statements be
accurate, whereas regulations governing electronically delivered info are
not as strict, or don't exist at all.

Don't get me wrong, I do like opening Money up every few days and seeing
which transactions have cleared my bank, -- it's an excellent feature and a
great convenience. But I'd draw the like at that.

So, I'm curious if the knowledgable regulars on here (1) trust auto
balancing?, and (2) what do they do when auto balancing doesn't work - do
they keep on going for months without ever balancing there accounts?



On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 06:51:58 -0500, Jim Johnson <jamesone[at]cableone.netwrote:

- quote -

Milburn Drysdale <.> wrote:

- quote -

Whether it is "supposed to work" that way or not, it does. But be that as
it may ....

I had used the automatic stuff for a while, then turned them off so I
could start balancing against the monthly statement (it isn't actually
paper either, I download an Acrobat file).

Turn off both "Automatically accept all downloaded transactions from
banking statements" and "Automatically mark accepted transactions as
Reconciled".

The 1st is really dangerous - you're trusting Money to match transactions.
At least 1 in 10 of my transactions would get mismatched that way - I have
to look at them and manually match those 1 in 10 transactions.

The 2nd will return you to being able to balance against paper statements.
I, like you, *want* to balance against the monthly statement, myself. Now,
when Money downloads transactions from your bank, and you accept them,
they will instead be marked with an "E" (basically, consider this to mean
"cleared").

Once you've turned those off, then wait for your *next* paper statement.
You need to be at a point that the transactions that already got marked
reconciled by the automatic method have actually cleared and appear on
your statement.

Then, when you balance it, do *not* adjust the opening balance. Use what
Money says is there, because it's working with what it already has
reconciled, and that last balance when it was automatically marking. It
*won't* match the opening balance shown on the paper statement.

Put in the right stuff for ending balance and date, and then you should be
able to reconcile successfully. Normally, one won't have to do anything at
that point, assuming your download was current. Usually, the transactions
that are on my statement are already "check-marked" (Money seems to
automatically check-mark all of the "cleared" transactions up to the date
of the statement, or something like that). At most, I wind up clicking one
or 2 transactions, and I'm balanced.

It can be strange getting it done the 1st time, if you've been using
"automatically reconcile" in the past, but after the 1st time, it usually
becomes quick, and easy.

Well it's clear we disagree, but I do think the bank will stand behind the
data it post, but to each his own. I don't know of any way other than
unreconciling items that you've already download etc. Maybe some of the
regulars here will have some suggestions. Take care.

Jim

"Milburn Drysdale" <.> wrote in message
newsprueuc5kd5j38ra[at]news.pa.comcast.giganews.com...
- quote -

I don't believe that is how it is supposed to work.

For one reason, the paper statement is the only statement banks stand
behind as being accurate, (refer to the typical agreement for online
services, electronically delivered info isn't guaranteed to be accurate),
another reason is if there's an issue with a downloaded transaction, a bank
can tell you to wait until the statement closes to see what's wrong.

More importantly, there's also another problem with the 'downloading is
supposed to eliminate the need to balance' theory: What do you do when,
say, your account did not auto balance for the last two or three months,
you have effectively gone two or three months with the account not being
balanced?

My experience has been that the first time auto balance didn't work, it
will never 'self correct' on subsequent statement closure periods. And
even if it did, you'd go a month or two or three until it did balanced.

So, back to the original issue, if auto balancing didn't work, how do you
balance against a paper statement without doing an inherently counter-
intuitive thing like un-reconciling some transactions?




On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 01:31:46 -0500, Jim Johnson <jamesone[at]cableone.netwrote:

- quote -

I think you are missing the whole point. Downloading from your bank and
using the auto balance feature is suppose to eliminate the need to balance
from the paper statement. Even if you get the was unable to balance your
account message when you download (I get that to sometimes), if you change
your view to unreconciled and look at the today's balance on the left at the
bottom of the register, and add you unreconciled transactions to it (not
post dated ones) it will or should match the banks reported balance shown on
the left after the download and your in perfect sync with the bank

Jim

"Milburn Drysdale" <.> wrote in message
newsprud4vzac5j38ra[at]news.pa.comcast.giganews.com...
- quote -